843.213.6611
Common Reasons Your Plumbing System May Stink: A Plumber Can Help | Myrtle Beach, SC
Photo By polya_olya at Shutterstock
During the summer months most homes in Myrtle Beach, SC are shut up pretty tightly, so any bad smells stay in the home and circulate through the air conditioning system over and over again. Therefore, if you have a faint sewer smell then it is going to become a very pronounced sewer smell that eventually drifts over everything that you own. This is not something you want to put up with for very long, and if there is a sewer smell then you can rest assured something is wrong with your plumbing. At this point, it is a very good idea to call a plumber to get to the bottom of the odor.
As you might expect, most sewer smells originate from the plumbing somewhere in your home, but it can be nearly impossible for you to narrow down the smell unless you happen to notice it is stronger over a specific sink. In this case, it is probably from a clog in the sink, but if it just seems to hang in the air then you need to call a plumbing service so they can send a plumber out to identify the cause. While you are waiting for them to come, here are a few of the top reasons that your home may smell like sewer and what you can do.
Issues with the Sewer Line
Obviously, the very first thing that a plumber will suspect, and probably you as well as the sewer line. There are a dozen things that
can go wrong with residential plumbing systems that can leave you with a stinky odor wafting through the house. If you can smell the sewer odor from outside of your as well then there is a good chance that you have a leak in your main sewer line.
On the other hand, something like a clog or a root infiltration can cause just enough buildup that the sewer gas is pushed back into your home. The line does not have to be fully clogged or the sewer gases to get pushed back when the water is flushing through so consider this a warning that a full clog and a potentially messy backup is impending if you don’t do something about it. This is a task that you always want to call and get help from a professional in Myrtle Beach, SC.
Drain Vents Outside of Your Home Are Blocked
Most people don’t even know that they have drain vents outside of their home, if you have never had an issue until now it is quite possible you don’t know about them either. However, these drain vents make it easy for pressure to build up between the drains and the sewer line of your home. The purpose of the vents is to pipe out sewer gas that builds up out of the house. When they are working properly you should not smell any noxious gases in your home, but if one or both get clogged then the gas has nowhere to go but back up your drains which is probably what is causing the odor in your home. A plumber can inspect your drain vents to correctly determine if this is the issue or not.
Dried Up P-Trap
This is the one instance you can probably fix on your own, although if you are uncomfortable doing so you can always call a plumber who will gladly help you out. The p-trap might be the cause of the odor if you can track down the odors to one drain. If you notice that the smell is not coming out of any other drains in your home, and it happens to be a drain that has not been used for the last few weeks then it is possible that the p-trap has dried up.
When you look under the drain, you will probably see a curved section of pipe which is referred to as the p-trap. This trap is responsible for holding water that helps keep the sewer gas from drifting out. When a sink isn’t used for quite some time the water dries out and allows the sewer gas to come out of the drain. To fix this issue simply turn on the water and let it run for a minute or two. If this is the issue then you should notice after a day or so that the odor is no longer coming out of the drain. However, if you notice the smell does not go away after running the water then it is time to call a plumber out to your Myrtle Beach, SC home.
Your Garbage Disposal Is Clogged or Needs to be Cleaned
Take a minute to think about how much food waste goes down the garbage disposal on a regular basis and it is easy to see why you may start to smell sewer-like smells drifting out of it. In fact, it is a miracle that you don’t smell stinky smells coming out of it more often when you think about it. The reason why is because most disposals are designed to immediately remove wastes from the drain line without leaving residue behind. That is one reason you are supposed to let the disposal continue to run 30 seconds after you believe it is done- to flush out all of the residues.
However, even with good garbage disposal habits residue will build up eventually leaving you with a stinky drain that you need a plumber to address. In addition, if your disposal is not working properly then the food may be accumulating inside of it which also may indicate that you need a plumber to take a look. If the system is less than ten years old then it may be a good idea to clean it, but if it is over ten years old then it is probably just better at this point to replace it. If you have any issues with bad sewer smells in your house, give Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of Myrtle Beach a call. We can send out a professional plumber to evaluate the issue.